fiona_gs's review against another edition

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dark informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

An interesting stroll down the more medial and natural science bad science. Well presented but felt listening to the audio book narrator was good but given the author does a podcast but didn't read his own book just got to me abit. Though I do love this narrator too and have head him on a number of books. 

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siobhanward's review against another edition

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informative medium-paced

3.5

 
Usually these kinds of books don't get to me, but this one had some moments that just put me on edge. This book is filled with graphic descriptions, so please check TWs before reading, since a good deal of it could be triggering.

All that to say, this was an interesting read overall. I appreciated that the chapters were fairly long, which meant an in-depth look at the topics at hand, rather than short, disjointed pieces. I will say, however, that a good deal of this felt like an advertisement for Kean's podcast - so many footnotes just ended with "for more info, check out episode x of my podcast" which got annoying pretty quickly.

Overall, Kean handles a number of sensitive topics with respect - the topics he chose were interesting and seemingly well-researched, and I enjoyed learning more about things I only had a general knowledge of before (including what an ice pick is apparently, because I realized while reading, I always pictured ice axes before...).

 

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panthalassa's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

3.5


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clarabooksit's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective slow-paced

3.0


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livdelrosso's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0


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reviewsandreadathons's review against another edition

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dark funny informative sad fast-paced

4.0


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readundancies's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective

4.0

This non-fiction read was my kinda morbid. I loved the scientific context mixed with the true crime documentary tone of the writing. 

Let it be known that this is not for the faint of heart. A lot of the more disillusioning and heavy content is covered in a very clinical way, and it can take a bit of getting used to. There are some really coldhearted individuals out there and this book highlights some of the most infamous of the lot. 

It’s so interesting though. I was living for this content. The number of times I said What the fuck?!? while reading was too many. 

At this point I should probably mention that I read this non-chronologically. It’s written in a way that each chapter is directly connected to and leads into the next. But, I was feeling out of sorts and decided to switch things up and read all over the place with respect to chapters. I didn't find it even mildly disconcerting, so I'd say if you wanted to read chapters out of order, it's very doable. 

My favourite chapters in no particular order include: 
  • Piracy: The Buccaneer Biologist
  • Slavery: The Corruption of the Flycatcher
  • Grave-Robbing: Jekyll & Hyde, Hunter & Knox
  • Murder: The Professor and the Janitor
  • Ambition: Surgery for the Soul
  • Malpractice: Sex, Power, and Money
  • Fraud: Superwoman.

If you're looking for a science-based non-fiction read with some true crime flair to the writing, I definitely recommend this.

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